OCTOBER 7, 1937

HYDE PARK, Wednesday—My mother-in-law's steamer docked fairly late yesterday evening, but she was brought off the boat with her luggage so quickly that it seemed no time at all before we were up at her own house in Sixty-Fifth Street. She made up her mind that in spite of the lateness of the hour she wanted to motor straight to Hyde Park, saying she had spent most of the time on board ship in bed so as to arrive well rested. She had been told that my husband's train would get in this morning and so she was most anxious to be here to greet him.

It began to rain last night, but that did not daunt her in the least, and when I went over this morning to the Big House, I found her most cheerful and apparently untired, supervising the unpacking of her various bags. She always prefers to travel with a great many little bags rather than with trunks and I imagine she is right as far as getting them off the steamer is concerned, for I never saw anything appear more rapidly.

We were all of us here in Hyde Park by midnight, or a little after, last night, and I was expecting my husband's party to arrive from the west by a quarter before ten. However, first the word came that the train would not be in before ten-thirty, and as usually happens it got later and later and they didn't arrive until eleven-thirty. James and Betsey came with my husband and they are all going on to Washington together.

After my husband arrived at the house, he sat out on the front porch and the entire press came up to ask questions. I very rarely stay for press conferences because I always have the most terrific urge to ask some of their questions for them! They want to know so many things that I would like to know also. I suppose I might get a great deal of explanation and knowledge if I insisted on asking questions in private, but it always seems to me a little unfair to force anyone to talk shop when they might be thinking of something else. In addition, it is certainly better for me to know only what the general public knows via the newspapers. Then there is never the slightest danger that I will tell something which I should not tell, for I know nothing except what any one else may know who chooses to read the public press.

My mother-in-law is very full of her experiences abroad and of the kindness which was shown her everywhere she went. I think the rest and the pleasant experiences have done her a great deal of good, she looks well and is in grand spirits. When pumpkin pie appeared for lunch, some of us who have a regard for our figures, took fruit instead. With a twinkle in her eye, she looked at us and said: "You don't know how good it is. Home food always tastes better than anything else. I shouldn't eat pie, but I am enjoying it a great deal!"